Op-Ed: 'Coronation Street' rapist charged with child sex assaults

Liverpool
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Earlier this year, Andrew Lancel played a rapist in the UK soap 'Coronation Street'. Yesterday he was charged with five counts of indecent assault on a child.

It has been announced by Merseyside Police that Andrew Watkinson (who uses the stage name Andrew Lancel), has been charged with 5 counts of indecent assault on a child under the age of 16. He will appear at South Sefton Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, December 19. No further information has been released, and because of this and Britain's strict contempt of court laws, it would be improper to say too much, but a couple of observations should be made.

These charges come in the wake of the (still ongoing) Jimmy Savile scandal which has led to all manner of allegations against all manner of people including Lord McAlpine.

But, and this is big but, Andrew Lancel - as we shall call him - is not a contemporary of Jimmy Savile, indeed he was not born until 1970. He has also played some hard characters, in particular a detective in The Bill and most especially the short lived Frank Foster in Coronation Street.

His first appearance in the series was January last year as a well spoken businessman in a suit. He ended up raping his business partner, Carla Connor, was acquitted, and then murdered by his own mother. Rough justice indeed.

As stated, no details of these alleged offences have been released, but those with even short memories will recall the case of Michael Le Vell, a time-serving actor in the same soap. He was accused earlier this year of an historic offence, in particular the rape of a 6 year old child, which is of course far more serious.

When the legal authorities realised these allegations had no basis in fact, they issued a typically disingenuous statement to the effect that they were dropping the charges because there was insufficient evidence and no realistic prospect of a conviction.

This current case would not be the first time that a young girl has seen an actor and become fixated with him, then her dreams have become convoluted with reality. This can happen in all manner of settings, sometimes with tragic results.

For all the above reasons, and in view of the Leveson Inquiry - which has now concluded - anyone commenting on this case should do so with extreme reserve and a great deal of skepticism. David Icke take note!

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com